Information about the New Heart Center
The Heart Center was completed February 2008, which was a $14.5 million project that involved quadrupling the square footage of the facility to allow for additional treatment rooms for catheterizations, electrophysiology and endovascular studies; a 22-bed preparation and recovery unit; and $5.4 million of the latest equipment for diagnosing and treating Heart diseases.
“We enhanced our heart services at Fairview Hospital to meet the needs of our community,” said Janice Murphy, president of Fairview Hospital. “Over the past three years, the number of patients needing interventional cardiology services at Fairview Hospital has increased over 30 percent. What our new Heart center has done really elevates the level of care and accessibility for people on the West Side to meet those needs.”
The history of coronary care at Fairview Hospital began 40 years ago when the hospital opened one of the nation’s first dedicated Coronary Care Units in 1966. Today, the hospital offers comprehensive diagnostic, medical and surgical heart services, including:
- cardiac catheterization,
- electrophysiology (EP),
- open heart surgery,
- non-invasive diagnostic testing
- congestive heart failure clinics,
- cardiac rehabilitation, and
- Pediatric cardiology.
Fairview Hospital also has an Emergency Chest Pain Center with policies and procedures in place to ensure immediate evaluation and treatment of patients by interventional cardiologists who are on call 24/7.
“We conduct annual assessments of our communities’ healthcare needs, and what we see is a continually growing need for the whole heart medical and surgical service line,” said Murphy. “So, we’re strengthening our tertiary high-level care on the West Side and expanding it so people can stay in their local communities and consult with their local doctors and specialists. With this new Heart Center we’re taking our services to the next level . . . for the community that receives care here and for the physicians who practice medicine here.”